to death

Idioms

To an extreme or intolerable degree, as in I am tired to death of these fund-raising phone calls, or That movie just thrilled me to death. This hyperbolic phrase is used as an intensifier. Also see sick and tired; tired out. [c. 1300]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She won the 1996 Best Actress Oscar for "Dead Man Walking", where she played a nun who supports a man sentenced to death.

From Barron's

A good idea, because Trotsky had been sentenced to death in 1936, at the outset of the Great Terror.

From The Wall Street Journal

It also would have been one of the greatest threats to his survival, since without adequate cold weather gear, Freeman could have frozen to death.

From BBC

As if he had solved the problem, and was tickled to death about it, the big monkey turned a few somersaults.

From Literature

“Come to think of it, Rowdy,” I said, “I’m starving to death for a drink of water. Let’s go get a drink first and then we’ll really get after these monkeys.”

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023